Labor talks continue on FAA bill

The White House has waded into debates with House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on a sticky labor issue that has held up a new funding bill for the Federal Aviation Administration.

All other outstanding issues have been worked out by congressional negotiators, but talks over the 2010 National Mediation Board rule that changed how airline industry union elections are calculated has hampered a deal for months.

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The House’s FAA bill approved this past spring included language to overturn the NMB rule, which would make it easier for some airline unions to form. Democrats are trying to block the House provision, arguing that even under the new rules, several airline union votes have failed – suggesting that the rule doesn’t need to be changed back.

A Reid aide confirmed that the two leaders are working on the issue. “At the moment there is no agreement,” the aide told POLITICO. The White House and Boehner’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

“I think the White House has been involved from the beginning,” Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) said about the labor issue.

House and Senate negotiators have been completely mum when it comes to the deals worked out on other issues such as overall funding levels, slots for Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, and the Essential Air Service program that subsidizes rural airports and regulations for shipping lithium ion batteries. Aside from the labor issue, those were the final disputes being worked on in negotiations.

The labor dispute has frustrated aviation’s “big four” negotiators — Hutchison, Senate Commerce Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) and T&I ranking member Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.). Mica and Rockefeller have both said the four could work out a deal if given the chance — but they’ve been preempted by leadership.

“The House committee people say they have no authority to make a deal on that; we don’t have authority to make a deal on it,” Hutchison said.

The two chambers are trying to write a conference report that will easily pass through the House and Senate, a difficult gambit in a divided legislature. So the ‘big four’ have been huddling every few days to hash out the last of their differences. And though those issues’ resolution appeared to be up to House leadership and in limbo last week, it seems they have now been resolved and wrapped up.

“It’s a painful process to go through but it’s a good sign that so many other things have been decided,” said Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), chair of the Aviation subcommittee.

The current extension expires Jan. 31, 2012, a fast-approaching deadline. “We’re getting to the point where we don’t have any time for it,” Rockefeller said. Despite that, it remains a priority: “The leader really wants to do it this year,” he said.

Mica has said pending hearing back from leadership — which he said Thursday he’s still waiting on — things could get moving quickly, a game plan echoed by Hutchison.

“I believe once NMB is settled, everything will trigger. I just hope it’s right now,” she said.

FAA policy has been extended 22 times over the past four and a half years, causing a slowdown in construction projects. The agency also endured a partial shutdown for two weeks this past summer after lawmakers couldn’t agree on a routine extension, causing the furlough of 4,000 employees and a temporary expiration of aviation taxes. The Airport and Airway Trust Fund lost about $350 million over that time, money for the most part pocketed by airlines.